Modern hearing aids often have a number of operation modes and a number of parameters that can be adjusted by a user. Therefore, such hearing aids should have a control panel with a number of activation facilities such as adjustment means and switches etc. Such a control panel must be easy to operate since often for example a Behind The Ear (BTE) type hearing aid is operated when in position behind the user's ear and consequently it should be operable without visual assistance. In addition, hearing aid users are often elderly people who may be more or less physically disabled. The control panel thus needs a form that enables the user to a have a clear tactile feeling of the control facilities, including a tactile acknowledgement when a control facility has been activated.
Control panels for hearing aids with adjustment facilities for volume control such as rollers or turning knobs are known. Switches are normally implemented as push buttons or they may be implemented with tiltable contact members having two or more positions.
Typically, known hearing aid control panels therefore provides at least two types of activation facilities. This has a number of disadvantages since such control panels will normally require openings in a hearing aid housing so as to allow activation means to have parts protruding from a surface of the hearing aid. However, these openings may allow dirt, moisture and liquids to penetrate through to inner parts of the hearing aid. Especially the presence of rollers or turning knobs, such as used for volume controls, will introduce openings in an outer shield of a hearing aid that can not be sealed. This may disturb its function and even lead to permanent damage of the hearing aid. In addition, a surface not being waterproof makes cleaning more tedious, especially for elderly visually impaired people who might have limited motoric capabilities.
For hearing aid manufacturers control panels for hearing aids normally involve openings in an outer surface of the hearing aid housing so as to allow activation members to protrude from a surface of the hearing aid and be operated by the user. However, this involves a binding with respect to mass production of hearing aids since the control facilities dictate the design of the hearing aid housing, such as with respect to positions and sizes of holes in the outer surface of the hearing aid housing. Therefore, having conventional built-in controls and a dedicated manufacture of the housing such hearing aid is not suited for changes in control facilities. Such control facility changes could be required by the user so as to adapt the hearing aid control to individual needs. It could also be required if new features were added to the hearing aid. With a traditional hearing aid it is not possible to adopt such control facility changes, instead a completely new hearing aid is required. This is a disadvantage with respect to mass production since a number of different hearing aids are necessary in order to provide different control facilities. This makes such changes complicated and expensive.
Consequently, a hearing aid with updated or enhanced control facilities will require design of a new housing and therefore only very few parts of the hearing aid can be re-used. This causes such updates or customer specific facilities to be expensive.